Having
treated myself recently to a 27 inch widescreen monitor, I encountered a
problem that I hadn't previously considered. Staring at a blank screen
in any editing application meant looking straight at 160 square inches
of bright white. Which, without a pair of sunglasses, actually hurts my
eyes.
In all the versions of Windows that I've used over the past 20 years or so, every one has offered the option to easily change the default background colour of a window. And most applications (though by no means all) obey this setting, rather than imposing their own background colour.
Trouble is, Microsoft seems to have removed this most basic of customisation options from Windows 8, for reasons best known to itself. Unless you're using one of the special High Contrast themes, there's no option on the control panel to change the default Windows background.
Needless to say, there's a workaround. It involves editing the registry, which is Windows's central database of all settings and config data. Not all of the data in the registry is as trivial as a colour setting, so be careful if you do this.
To change the background colour in Windows 8, first run the Regedit registry editor. From a command prompt, just type Regedit to do this. Then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and from there to Control Panel. Then click on Colors, and look down the list on the right hand side of the screen until you come to Window. It will be set to 255 255 255, which is the RGB code for white. To change it something less intense, try 200 200 200. Just double-click on the entry to change it.
When you're done, exit the registry editor and log out. When you next log into Windows, your new colour will take effect.
In all the versions of Windows that I've used over the past 20 years or so, every one has offered the option to easily change the default background colour of a window. And most applications (though by no means all) obey this setting, rather than imposing their own background colour.
Trouble is, Microsoft seems to have removed this most basic of customisation options from Windows 8, for reasons best known to itself. Unless you're using one of the special High Contrast themes, there's no option on the control panel to change the default Windows background.
Needless to say, there's a workaround. It involves editing the registry, which is Windows's central database of all settings and config data. Not all of the data in the registry is as trivial as a colour setting, so be careful if you do this.
To change the background colour in Windows 8, first run the Regedit registry editor. From a command prompt, just type Regedit to do this. Then navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER and from there to Control Panel. Then click on Colors, and look down the list on the right hand side of the screen until you come to Window. It will be set to 255 255 255, which is the RGB code for white. To change it something less intense, try 200 200 200. Just double-click on the entry to change it.
When you're done, exit the registry editor and log out. When you next log into Windows, your new colour will take effect.
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HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors.
But every time I hibernate the PC (Win 8.1) the windows go back to white background, only the log-off log-on actually works.
I tried changing the color even in all the HKEY_USERS but nothing changed.
Any idea?
You can experiment with that manually to prove the idea. With colours set as you wish, hibernate, resume-> colours lost. Then rt click desktop, personalise, reapply the theme.
To do this programmatically, I set up a scheduled task which is launched when I resume (requires a special event trigger condition I fortunately found on another forum) to launch a program - Winaero's themeswitcher which takes the theme you are using as parameter.
(I did try the command line solutions I found to apply a theme, but with limited success - themeswitcher is just much simpler)
I've not seen a solution for this elsewhere.
Now I've a pleasant pale yellow in most fields and backgrounds- explorer and non-standard windows excepted of course.
Thanks Microsoft..
Any idea how to make the system reconsider the colors in the registry without having to close every program and logoff?
That said, it is a good work around with no decent UI (I join the chorus of "I want my XP SP3"). However, I have encountered a new and confusing problem:
I have the color set at 196 196 196 and when I restart my computer, all the office programs use this accordingly. If the computer "locks" or goes to sleep, however, it returns to the bright white of 255 255 255. When I check the registry, it is still 196 196 196 and I have to restart to get the colors to turn back.
Does anyone have a thought on why this is happening?
Do you know what to do when MS Word reflects the changed window background color, but Excel does not?
Nothing better than XP.
I have the same 'bright eyes' problems and cant get any solution for this.
Maybe the virtual XP but for me its to technical to do i think
What about the registry tutorial here,it works for some windows,but not for all windows.
For instance,my music map wont grey.
This is the map i use mostly of the day.
In XP i had it light grey,in this W 8.1 it stays bright white.
What's your monitor brightness set at? Most default settings are way too bright.
Now that I've the article read it properly, I realise it's about setting your "window background" colour. It's just unbelievable there is no UI to manage this.
------------------------------
The desktop background can be changed from the UI, it's just thoroughly obfuscated.
Steps are:
1. Control Panel -> Personalisation
2. Choose "Desktop Background" icon the menu at the bottom of the window.
3. Choose the "Picture location" dropdown, and select "Solid Colours".
4. Follow your nose, & remember to "Save changes" before exiting.
maj
The features are there, just somewhat different locations.